The Pharaoh and the Priest. Bolesław Prus

pointing to the lower park.

      "They are taking thy brother, worthiness, from a tree where he has been sitting since midday."

      "Is he unwilling to come down?"

      "He will come down now, for the first queen's jester has gone for him, and has promised to take him to the inn where dissectors are drinking."

      "And hast Thou heard anything of the maneuvers of today?"

      "They say that the staff was cut off from the corps."

      "And what more?"

      The official hesitated.

      "Tell what Thou hast heard."

      "We heard, moreover, that because of this five hundred blows of a stick were given to a certain officer at thy command, worthiness."

      "It is all a lie!" said one of the adjutants of the heir in an undertone.

      "The soldiers, too, say among themselves that it must be a lie," returned the official, with growing confidence.

      Ramses turned his horse and rode to the lower part of the park where his small palace was situated. It had a ground and an upper story and was built of wood. Its form was that of an immense hexagon with two porticos, an upper and a lower one which surrounded the building and rested on a multitude of pillars. Lamps were burning in the interior; hence it was possible to see that the walls were formed of planks perforated like lace, and that these walls were protected from the wind by curtains of various colors. The roof of the building was flat, surrounded by a balustrade; on this roof stood a number of tents.

      Greeted heartily by half-naked servitors, some of whom ran out with torches, while others prostrated themselves before him, the heir entered his residence. On the ground floor he removed his dusty dress, bathed in a stone basin, and put on a kind of great sheet which he fastened at the neck and bound round his waist with a cord for a girdle. On the first floor he ate a supper consisting of a wheaten cake, dates, and a glass of light beer. Then he went to the terrace of the building, and lying on a couch covered with a lion skin, commanded the servants to withdraw and to bring up Tutmosis the moment he appeared there.

      About midnight a litter stopped before the residence, and out of it stepped the adjutant. When he walked along the terrace heavily yawning as he went, the prince sprang up from the couch and cried,

      "Art Thou here? Well, what?"

      "Then art Thou not sleeping yet?" replied Tutmosis. "O gods, after so many days of torture! I think that I should sleep until sunrise."

      "What of Sarah?"

      "She will be here the day after to-morrow, or Thou wilt be with her in the house beyond the river."

      "Only after to-morrow!"

      "Only? I beg thee, Ramses, to sleep. Thou hast taken too much bad blood to thy heart, fire will strike to thy head."

      "What about her father?"

      "He is honorable and wise. They call him Gideon. When I told him that Thou hadst the wish to take his daughter, he fell on the ground and tore his hair. Of course I waited till this outburst of fatherly suffering was over; I ate a little, drank some wine, and at last proceeded to bargaining. The weeping Gideon swore first of all that he would rather see his daughter dead than the mistress of any man. Then I told him that near Memphis, on the Nile, he would receive land which gives two talents of yearly income and pays no taxes. He was indignant. Then I stated that he might receive another talent yearly in gold and silver. He sighed and declared that his daughter had spent three years at school in Pi-Bailos; I added another talent. Then Gideon, still disconsolate, remembered that he would lose his very good position of manager for the lord Sesofris. I told him that he need not lose that place, and added ten milch cows from thy stables. His forehead cleared somewhat; then he confessed to me, as a profound secret, that a certain very great lord, Chaires, who bears the fan of the nomarch of Memphis, was turning attention toward Sarah. I promised then to add a young bull, a medium chain of gold, and a large bracelet. In this way thy Sarah will cost thee land, two talents yearly in money, ten cows, a young bull, a chain and a gold bracelet, immediately. These Thou wilt give to her father, the honest Gideon; to her Thou wilt give whatever pleases thee."

      "What did Sarah say to this?"

      "While we were bargaining she walked among the trees. When we had finished the matter and settled it by drinking good Hebrew wine, she told her father dost Thou know what? that if he had not given her to thee, she would have gone up the cliff and thrown herself down head foremost. Now Thou mayst sleep quietly, I think," ended Tutmosis.

      "I doubt it," answered Ramses, leaning on the balustrade and looking into the emptiest side of the park. "Dost Thou know that on the way back we found a man hanging from a tree?"

      "Oh! that is worse than the scarabs!"

      "He hanged himself from despair because the warriors filled the canal which he had been digging for ten years in the desert."

      "Well, that man is sleeping now quietly. So it is time for us."

      "That man was wronged," said the prince. "I must find his children, ransom them, and rent a bit of laud to them."

      "But Thou must do this with great secrecy," remarked Tutmosis, "or all slaves will begin to hang themselves, and no Phoenician will lend us, their lords, a copper uten."

      "Jest not. Hadst Thou seen that man's face, sleep would be absent to- night from thy eyes as it is from mine."

      Meanwhile from below, among the bushes, was heard a voice, not over powerful, but clear,

      "May the One, the All-Powerful, bless thee, Ramses, He who has no name in human speech, or statue in a temple."

      Both young men bent forward in astonishment.

      "Who art thou?" called out the prince.

      "I am the injured people of Egypt," replied the voice, slowly and with calmness.

      Then all was silent. No motion, no rustle of branches betrayed human presence in that place.

      At command of Ramses servants rushed out with torches, the dogs were unchained, and every bush around the house was searched. But they found no one.

      "Who could that have been, Tutmosis?" asked the prince, with emotion.

       "Perhaps it was the ghost of that slave who hanged himself?"

      "I have never heard ghosts talking, though I have been on guard at temples and tombs more than once. I should think, rather, that he who has just called to us is some friend of thine."

      "Why should he hide?"

      "But what harm is that to thee? Each one of us has tens, if not hundreds, of invisible enemies. Thank the gods, then, that Thou hast even one invisible friend."

      "I shall not sleep to-night," whispered the excited prince.

      "Be calm. Instead of running along the terrace listen to me and lie down. Thou wilt see Sleep that is a deliberate divinity, and it does not befit him to chase after those who run with the pace of a deer. If Thou wilt lie down on a comfortable couch, Sleep, who loves comfort, will sit near thee and cover thee with his great mantle, which covers not only men's eyes, but their memories."

      Thus speaking, Tutmosis placed Ramses on a couch; then he brought an ivory pillow shaped like a crescent, and arranging the prince, placed his head on this pillow.

      Then he let down the canvas walls of the tent, laid himself on the floor, and both were asleep in some minutes.

      CHAPTER VI

      THE entrance to the pharaoh's palace at Memphis was through a gate placed between two lofty towers or pylons. The external walls of these buildings were of gray sandstone covered from foundation to summit with bas reliefs.

      At the top of the gate rose the arms of the state, or its symbol: a winged globe, from behind which appeared two